Shopping and More…

Let me preface this posting by stating that I am not a guy who likes to shop!  However, from time to time we do run across a retail establishment that I feel is truly different or that is significantly superior to others of its ilk.

This is Vinterest North in Hixson Tennessee.  We’d been to Vinterest Southside near downtown Chattanooga and I thought it was quite superior to most antique/individual booth style operations.  So on a recent day-long drive, I surprised Laurie by taking her to the original Vinterest operation…

Vinterest Antiques was founded by a couple who were already successful in the corporate world.  But Paul and Katherine (Kat) Schurer put it all on the line and walked away from the rat race and gambled on fulfilling dreams of their own business…a business that actually appealed to them.

Vinterest Antiques North in Hixon opened in 2015 in this building…with 16,000 square feet of retail space.  Their new venture now includes Vinterest Southside…and their operation is home to more than 100 artisans and pickers…a big bunch of creative folks.

Good merchants that they are (Kat was a Regional Manager for a major retailer)…food items are right up front.  That’s Impulse Buying 101!  I’m not a shopper and we have too much stuff already, but interesting and quality food items are my downfall…as we proved in this visit. 

One booth just outside offered a selection of metal animals that a local crafts person created.  We do have a couple of small metal birds along the same line… They have character and they’re small.  But if I had a big bar/game room, I’d take a closer look at that buffalo.

When Laurie finds a booth/vendor with kitchen and home items like this one, I always feel lucky to escape with minimal damage to our budget!

Laurie uses Udder Joy’s products every day so we always stop by and replenish her supply wherever we find them.  Udder Joy produces various beauty products included a plethora of soaps, creams, balms and scrubs.  For more information go to https://www.udderjoyfarms.com/.

I just liked this booth because it was so colorful and upbeat.  To learn more about Kendra Joyner, go to https://www.facebook.com/kjoynerart/.

This booth also attracted my attention.  TomKat Kreations specializes in rustic industrial reclaimed wood and pipe furniture.  I was lucky to escape without one of these pipe lamps!  Fortunately, Laurie couldn’t come up with a logical place for it in our home… Check out this craftsman/artist’s creations at https://www.facebook.com/tomkatkreations/.

Vinterest North is located at 2105 Northpoint Boulevard in Hixson Tennessee. (North of Chattanooga) They are open daily.  Phone: 423-551-4790.  Website: https://vinterestantiques.com/index.html.

OK…enough shopping.  On to the miscellaneous part of this post.

Laurie’s orchid in her ‘plant room’ recently began blooming again.  It’s at least 10 years old and it looks great…

We’ve had sporadic severe thunderstorms in the area over the past 3 – 4 weeks.  We’ve had a lot of branches down but the other day as Laurie drove home from lunch with a friend, when she was one lot away from our house, she had to turn around and come in the other way.  The cut up tree in the first photo had come down in the storm and totally blocked our street.  She had to call our public works department to remove it. 

When I went over to take a look at the lot (right next door to our house) I noted that the big tree in the second photo had come down too…laying on an angle across other trees in this wooded lot.  We were glad that no trees had fallen our way!

So…I thought that I’d end this post with a little food.  I’d had a hankering for corn meal mush cakes, Johnny cakes or polenta but I hadn’t spotted any ready to fry in our local grocery stores.

I was thinking corn meal mush but I had to take what I could find.  Cornmeal mush is a type of cornmeal pudding that is usually boiled in water or milk, allowed to set into a semi-solid, then cut into flat pieces and pan fried.  In the Midwest, where I’m from, it’s usually eaten with maple syrup or molasses.  As it turns out, polenta, mush and Johnny cakes are all pretty much the same thing.

So I took my roll of commercial polenta, cut it in slices, fried it in Amish butter, slathered it with more butter, went for some with Vermont maple syrup and then, following Laurie’s suggestion, added some brown sugar on top.  It was very satisfying… Of course, everything is better with butter!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Quality BBQ at Taste-o-Texas!

First of all, let me say that in our opinion good barbeque is very hard to find in East Tennessee.  Some may disagree with us but if you’ve had barbeque in the better Memphis, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas-Ft. Worth or Austin Texas restaurants, you will know what we mean.  As a consequence of this dearth of good barbeque, we are always on the lookout for that ‘breakthrough’ restaurant in our area of the country.

Our friends Norm and Linda first alerted us to this little restaurant on TN Hwy. 72, just a mile or so from the interchange with I-75. (Exit 72) They went a couple of times and enjoyed their meals.  Then we saw positive comments on our local Facebook (Nextdoor) site.  So, after a day of exploration in our area, we decided to stop by for dinner at Taste-o-Texas.

The restaurant is in a small strip center next to a tobacco store.  It occupies space that formerly served as an Italian restaurant that specialized in pizza.  The space is clean and has been freshened up with a bit of a barbeque/Texas theme.

At Taste-o-Texas, customers order at the counter and staff brings your food to you when it is ready.  The employees were all cheerful and wanted to insure that you enjoyed your food! 

There is a big menu board as well as some printed menus that customers can order from.  Taste-o-Texas does serve beer including a nod to the State of Texas with Lone Star Beer.

As per their website, the owners of this restaurant wanted to bring authentic Central Texas Style Barbeque to the people of East Tennessee.  They initially focused on beef brisket and smoked sausage…cooked over a wood fire.  Sauce on the side.  They also state that they only use premium cuts of beef and pork for all of their barbeque.

Taste-o-Texas makes up their own barbeque sauces.  I tasted all 3 of them.  The Sassy Sauce was too bland for either of us but it is popular.  The Smokin’ Sauce was the one that Laurie used.  It had just enough ‘pop’ and heat to satisfy her palate.  The first 2 sauces were on the table but when I asked about a version with more ‘heat’ they gave me a container of “Blazing Sauce” to try.  It was pretty good…if just a little too mild for me to be ideal.

I ordered the Big Texan Platter. ($11.99) It came with a choice of 2 meats with brisket, pulled pork and sausage being my options.  I’m pretty burned out on pulled pork in general so my choices were easy to make.

The menu states that you can order lean or moist beef brisket.  I was asked which one I wanted and I chose the moist version.  It was pretty tasty!  The sausage was homemade and it was excellent!

As you can see, my dinner came with Texas toast and pickles.  Platters come with 2 sides so I chose the Cilantro-Lime Coleslaw and the Chipotle Spiced Tater Tots.  The coleslaw was good but not overly distinctive and the tater tots were…well tater tots with a little flavor fried in.  They were a step up from the original but I’d read on the website that they served French fries with Chipotle spice and I think that would have been even better. (They aren’t on the menu though)

Through the internet grapevine we’d heard that as a special, Taste-o-Texas was doing pork ribs on Saturdays.  It was Saturday so I convinced Laurie to order a full rack of ribs so I could share some with her.  The website had mentioned ‘fall off the bone’ ribs and we were delighted when our ribs were not ‘fall off the bone’.  We like to ‘worry’ our ribs a bit!

The meaty pork ribs were excellent…the best we’ve had in any restaurant in East Tennessee and on a par with many good rib joints that we’ve eaten at around the USA.  They are so popular that the owners are now offering ribs on Fridays too!  Laurie’s sides were the Mustard-Dill Potato Salad and the Fresh Green Beans.  Both were above average side offerings.  

The next time we dine at Taste-o-Texas, I’ll order a full rack of ribs and convince Laurie to order a Smoked Sausage Platter (2 links) and we’ll share back and forth!  We will visit this new establishment again…and soon!

Taste-o-Texas is located at 1562 TN Hwy. 72 North in Loudon Tennessee.  They are open from 11 AM until 7 PM Monday through Saturday.  Phone: 865-657-9684.  Website: http://www.tasteotexas.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a bit of barbeque!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

The International Towing and Recovery Museum

We’d been thinking about visiting this museum for a couple of years now.  One of our friends, who is mechanically inclined and used to work on big equipment, had visited the Tow Truck Museum and he loved it…

So recently, we did a day trip from our home to Madisonville, Delano, Chattanooga and Hixson Tennessee…with our primary goal being this unusual but special museum.

This is an exterior view of the International Towing and Recovery Museum.  Love that creative bench out front!

This all began with a small group of dedicated towing professionals…the Friends of Towing.  They decided to recognize outstanding people in the towing and recovery business worldwide.  They set out to record the industry’s history, collect and display artifacts and memorabilia in a museum setting and inform the public about the business.

In the beginning, the Friends of Towing displayed the Hall of Fame (initially 27 individuals) and its museum in a semi-trailer.  They drove it from town to town, attending towing and recovery industry trade shows across the USA.  In 1995, they chose Chattanooga Tennessee as the permanent home for their museum…

So why did the Friends of Towing organization pick Chattanooga as its permanent home?  The answer is Ernest Holmes Sr.  He’d established a garage in Chattanooga and he quickly spotted the need to recover and tow customer’s cars to his garage.  With the help of others, he built his first wrecker on a Cadillac frame in 1916.  He patented it in 1919…the same year that he built his first production model…the 680.  FYI, the cost of this wrecker was the same as the model number.

This beautiful white wrecker greeted us in the lobby!  This is a modified 1929 Packard Model 640 with a 3-ton Manley Crane mounted at the back.  In the early years of the business, it was common to convert late model limousines and other large cars into wreckers.  This was due to their size and the power of their motors…

This is a 1913 Cadillac with a replica 1916 Holmes Model 680 wrecker assembly mounted on the back.  This former touring car was located in the late 1950s and it was transported to the Ernest Holmes factory in Chattanooga.  It was modified with a pick-up truck bed installed in the back and then the entire vehicle was completely restored.

FYI…The Ernest Holmes Company has passed through a couple of different iterations but the remnants of the original company are now part of Miller Industries…a successor in the tow truck/wrecker industry based in Ooltewah Tennessee.  Their annual sales volume is ca. $400,000,000.

A series of ‘Kiddie Car’ wreckers hang along a wall in the museum’s reception/gift shop area.  Some of them, like this model are highly collectible. 

This is a 1913 Locomobile equipped with a Model 485 Holmes wrecker assembly.  Locomobiles were built in Bridgeport Connecticut and this model cost $6,000 new!  It has a 6-cylinder motor which develops 82 horsepower.  The wrecker booms are rated for 2-tons per boom.  The Locomobile is equipped with outrigger legs to stabilize it when it’s recovering another vehicle.  It has the original wooden wheels and the brass lanterns.  Pretty fancy wrecker!

Note:

·       Locomobile was one of the earliest car builders in the USA.  It started operations in 1898 and continued operations until 1929.  The company manufactured small steam powered cars until 1903, when production entirely shifted to internal combustion-powered luxury automobiles.  Despite the early shift away from steam, all cars ever produced by the original company were sold under the brand name…Locomobile.

This 1926 Ford Model TT equipped with a Manley crane is owned by Scotty’s Carriage Works in Cameron Missouri.  That company has been in business since 1950 and this vehicle is on loan to the museum.

Note:

·       The Ford Model TT truck was based on the Ford Model T but with a heavier frame and rear axle.  In 1926, Ford built 213,914 Model TT trucks.  This model came with a hand operated windshield wiper!

The museum isn’t all about tow/recovery vehicles and the related business.  There are a scattering of old gas pumps as well.  The first one above has been modified as an eye-catching promo for the Museum and the second one is a Texaco sign…common enough even in this day and age.

However, I’d never seen Signal Gas or Polly Gas stations or pumps before… The Signal Gasoline Company started up in 1922 when a farmer started his first filling station.  He did well, becoming Signal Gas and Oil, and in 1931, Signal entered into a partnership with the Standard Oil Company.  Signal eventually became the largest independent oil company on the US West Coast…

As for Polly Gas, it was a brand name for the Los Angeles based Wilshire Oil Company.  That company operated in southern California from 1935 until the company was purchased by Gulf Oil in 1960.

This is a 1929 Chevrolet tow truck.  Originally it was purchased from a Chevrolet – Buick dealership and then it was used in an East Patterson New Jersey junk yard.  It was purchased from an estate in 1974 and completely refurbished.  It’s owned by two guys from St. Clements California. 

This red and white beauty dates back to just a couple of years before I was born.  It is a former 1940 Chevrolet Stake Truck (used for hauling cattle) that is now equipped with a Holmes 515 wrecker bed and a 540 high-speed towing cradle.  It is owned by Whealon Towing and Service in Fond du Lac Wisconsin.

This piece of eye candy is a 1974 Ford equipped with a Vulcan Cradle Snatcher.  The truck originally served with Bob London’s Wrecker in Longview Texas but in 1989 it was purchased and totally refurbished by Vulcan Manufacturing in Olive Branch Mississippi.  The truck was originally manufactured in Toronto Ontario Canada, hence one side of the truck features the Canadian Flag and of course, this side is all about the American Flag.

Leslie Bubik Sr. and his son Leslie Jr., designed the Vulcan cradle snatcher.  This was the first tow truck device that could remove a car from a parking space.  Police departments were an early customer…followed by car thieves and of course, the ‘repo man’.

Note:

·       I found it interesting that Miller Industries in Ooltewah Tennessee, the company that took over the remainder of the Ernest Holmes Company, also acquired Vulcan.

This is a Holmes W-45 Twin-Boom Wrecker on a Diamond-T chassis.  This workhorse of Patton’s World War II Red Ball Express was rated to pull 15 tons.  The vehicle was designated the Diamond-T 969 4-ton 6x6 Wrecker.  This wrecker was manufactured by the Ernest Holmes Company in Chattanooga Tennessee from 1941 to 1949.  A total of 7,238 units were built.

This wrecker served as part of the “Red Ball Express” in France.  In 1947 it was given to the French Army.  Eventually it was sold to a French manufacturer of towing and wrecking equipment.  It was returned to Chattanooga in December of 1997.

Note:

·       The Red Ball Express was a famous truck convoy that supplied Allied forces moving quickly through France after the D-Day invasion.  Staffed primarily with African-American soldiers, at its peak the Express operated 5,958 vehicles and carried about 12,500 tons (25,000,000 lbs.) of supplies each day.

Something for kids of all ages… The Museum has a massive collection of toy wreckers/tow trucks of all types.  They have plastic, cast iron, steel, tin and wooden models.  You might not be able to afford a spectacular real tow truck but these toys are also highly collectible.

This tow truck from Red’s Garage in Binghamton New York is a 1952 Ford F-6 with a 460 Holmes wrecker installation.  In the last few years of its life in New York, it was featured in several Independence Day parades…but it wasn’t driven, it was too special.  It was transported on a carrier!  In any case it found its way to the Museum in 2003. 

This is a 1979 Ernest Holmes 440 HI-POWER Wrecker.  Retired speedway driver Eddie Martin put the petal to the metal all the way around Talladega’s famous racetrack…setting a speed record for a production wrecker of 109.330 miles per hour.  He was hitting 130 mph on the straightaways!  He could only make one run as the tires were melting on the racetrack!  In 2005, after years at Talladega, this wrecker was purchased by Miller Industries in Ooltewah Tennessee.

This 1937 Chevrolet tow truck with a 3-ton Weaver apparatus is owned by Andy’s Wrecker Service in St. Cloud Minnesota.  The sign on the side shows it to be from Sauk Rapids Minnesota.  How about that old AAA emblem on the side!

FYI...The Museum also features a long well lighted hallway between the exhibits and the Reception Area/Gift Shop that displays photos of those in and related to the towing and recovery business who have been selected as members of the industry’s Hall of Fame.  Women were very well represented.  Other than the USA, I noted Hall of Fame inductees from Canada, England, Scotland, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Finland, Japan, Poland and France.

Dad’s is the ‘granddaddy’ of wreckers!  A 1953 Holmes W-70 (70 ton) wrecker apparatus is mounted on a 1961 Autocar with a 180 Cummins Diesel.  This was the largest mechanical wrecker ever built.  This truck and Holmes wrecker was completely restored at a cost of $100,000!

Note:

·       The Autocar Company is an American company that today manufactures severe-duty (heavy duty) vocational trucks.  The company was started in 1897 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania as an early manufacturer of automobiles as well as trucks beginning in 1899.  Autocar No. 1 is in the collection at the Smithsonian.  The company’s 1899 truck was the first motor truck ever produced for sale in the USA.  Autocar is the oldest surviving motor vehicle brand in the Western Hemisphere.     

This is a 1970 Cony that was manufactured by Aichi Kokuki (now part of Nissan). It was modeled after a Holmes Commander 1200.  This little tow truck was found abandoned but was saved and restored.  This rebuilt tow truck was tested by towing a Ford Escort.  It’s participated in many parades and has been displayed in a number of tow/recovery conventions.

Note:  

·       The Towing/Recovery Industry is really active with a number of conventions around the USA every year.  If you’re curious, you can check out the following convention schedule for 2019:  https://liftmarketinggroup.com/2019-tow-show-schedule/.

Love the color of the O’Hare Truck Services Inc. tow truck.  This vehicle began life as a 1929 Chrysler 5 window coupe.  The Chrysler-Plymouth dealership that converted it to a tow truck was based in Oak Park Illinois. (Chrysler never built a truck) This vehicle was in continuous use from 1930 until 1971 when the dealership closed.  It took 2 years to restore!

For my last entry, I decided to feature this 1935 Ford Tow Truck…with the ‘eyelash’ head lights and a greyhound hood ornament.  Owned by Rogner’s Garage in Palatine Illinois, it took 4 years to refurbish and rebuild this handsome vehicle.  Originally it was a 1-ton pick-up truck.  The pick-up bed was removed and replaced with a Ford Service Body Model 229 with a 1.5-ton Weaver Crane.  Weaver was a competitor of the Ernest Holmes Company.  Nice transformation!

We really enjoyed our self-guided tour of this specialty museum.  The tour began with a short and informative film.  The museum is open 7 days a week but hours vary with the season.  Adult admission is $10.00, Seniors and Military $9.00, AAA Members $8.50 and children from 6 – 14 are $6.00.  

The International Towing and Recovery Museum is located at 3315 Broad Street in Chattanooga Tennessee.  Phone: 423-267-3132.  Website: www.towingmuseum.com. 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what we’ve been up to!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

The French Market Creperie and Café

Several years ago, we’d stopped and had dinner at The French Market Creperie and Café…but for whatever reason we’d never gotten around to a return visit.  So, when we were out running errands recently, we decided that we felt like crepes for lunch…

This is the French Market Creperie and Café location in the West Knoxville/Farragut area.  It has been open since 2014, occupying a large space in the Kroger Shopping Plaza just east of Campbell Station Road.

The French Market Creperie and Cafe was created by a couple that lived in Paris off and on for several years.  In their Paris neighborhood they loved the local bistro where they could enjoy coffee, croissants, omelets, a tartine or crepes.  One of the best things about their experience was that it was a neighborhood gathering place… When they returned to Knoxville, they missed the local bistro feeling and that led to the opening of their first Creperie and Bistro in downtown Knoxville.   

The interior of the West Knoxville Creperie is decorated in a manner that evokes a French bistro.  The décor includes elaborate lighting, French flags, symbols and posters…and even a bicycle hanging from the ceiling.  Cycling is really important in Paris.  In addition to hundreds of miles of cycling routes in Paris, there are thousands of rental bikes…the preferred method of transportation for many in that city.

In the French Market Creperie and Cafe, customers can review printed menus or the chalk boards on the wall behind the service counter.  You place your order and the pleasant and helpful staff brings your food to your table when it’s ready.

I ordered a coffee (black) while Laurie ordered one of the Creperie’s special French lemonades. ($2.75) We believe that it was raspberry mint.  In any case, she really liked it!  My coffee was a LavAzza dark roast drip. ($2.25) 

When Laurie saw the French Onion Soup and side salad combo on the menu, she decided to forgo a crepe as her main dish. ($9.50) She loves French Onion Soup (and I don’t eat it) so she orders it almost every time she sees it on a menu.

On to the crepes… The French Market Creperie’s flour is shipped over from France as were their cast iron griddles and rozells. (Little wooden crepe spreaders)  The owners feel that the secret to their crepes is their use of this imported flour.  It yields that ‘true and authentic flavor’.

I ordered the Turkey Breast, Spinach and Artichoke Crepe with Swiss Cheese using the traditional crepe flour. ($8.95) It was tasty but a bit too bland for me and it needed something with it on the plate to make it more appealing. (Sorry, I’m not French…)

We shared a dessert crepe…and I was much happier with this lovely creation.  This is the Bavarian Crepe with added strawberries and banana. ($9.50) It was a luscious creation and I could have easily eaten the whole thing!

…so a few weeks later, Laurie and her friend Barbara stopped in at the French Market Creperie for lunch.

Once again Laurie skipped the crepe menu and opted for a Chicken Salad Croissant with leaf lettuce and tomato. ($6.95) She reported that she made an excellent choice.  They certainly didn’t skimp on the chicken salad!

Her friend Barbara opted for a sweet crepe for lunch rather than a savory one!  This was her Strawberries and Cream Crepe with fresh strawberries with a homemade sweet ricotta and cream cheese mix as well as whipped cream and almonds. ($7.50) She told Laurie that she likes this crepe so well, she always orders it!  From my point of view, she may be onto something!

We’ll definitely be back!  Dessert crepes for me for sure…and Laurie will actually try a savory crepe the next time.

The French Market Creperie and Café (West) is located at 161 Brooklawn Street in Knoxville Tennessee, just off Kingston Pike and not far from the Turkey Creek Shopping Area. (Phone: 865-288-7912) The original French Market Creperie is in downtown Knoxville.  The company’s website and menu are found at http://www.thefrenchmarketknoxville.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what was for lunch!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave